Paulo Afonso Falls

About this place

The Paulo Afonso Falls are a series of tiered cascades on the São Francisco River between Bahia and Alagoas, where the river steps down through smaller falls before plunging about eighty metres into a narrow gorge. Before the dams their flow was estimated in thousands of cubic metres a second, which would have made them the largest falls in Brazil and among the largest in the world. The Dutch painter Frans Post painted them in 1649, and Emperor Pedro II visited in 1852. Taming of the river began in 1913 with the Angiquinho power plant built by the businessman Delmiro Gouveia, the first hydroelectric station in the north-east, and from 1948 the Paulo Afonso hydroelectric complex was built to power much of the semi-arid interior. Since then water flows over the falls only when the spillways are opened in very wet years. On ordinary days you see the dry rock gorge, the bridges and the dams; when the gates open, the old spectacle returns in full force. Follow the news about spillway openings before the trip; the town also runs visits to the power stations and boat trips in the river gorges.